BCB favours the elite (23 October 1998)

23 October 1998

BCB favours the elite

Al-Amin

Jamal Ahmed, a middle-aged man, has been roaming round the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) office for the last two days. So has been a young handsome guy. They had been looking for the man most in demand in the Wills International Cup, Tanveer Mazhar Islam, the member-secretary of Ticket and Sitting Committee.

But Tanveer Mazhar, who is also a BCB vice-president, turned out to be the invisible man, much to the frustration of, not only the two aggrieved persons, but about a thousand curious visitors at the BCB office.

Jamal was carrying an application from four Indian cricket fans, who are likely to see a few matches of the knock-out tournament. But the wait of the bearded man for Tanveer, who reserves the authority to recommend for the now elusive tickets for the International Gallery, was in vain because Tanveer never turned up.

This is only one of the many facets of total mismanagement regarding the tickets. To some extent, the disbursement of tickets was an act of nepotism on the part of Tanveer Mazhar that has already evoked widespread criticism among the cricket fans.

Much like a vanishing act, the tickets of the tournament, be it for the gallery or the high-priced enclosures, disappeared from every IFIC Bank branch when it was released on October 20. Cricket fans, who stood at long queues even before sunrise, returned home empty-handed after being told "tickets have been sold out". It is a pity that Tanveer's men did not even bother to disclose the up-date situation to the Press so that the suffering of the ticket-hunters could have been greatly reduced.

The story revolving the Family Box, VIP, Club House, Special enclosure and International gallery tickets are more interesting. Although the BCB did not have to spend a single penny of the about Taka 16 crore incurred for face-lifting the Bangabandhu National Stadium, their commercial interest was so prominent that they have even ignored the icons of the game.

The BCB allotted 45 sets of tickets for each Premier Division outfits which also included the players. But a dejected Brothers Union official said the allotment was so nominal that they can not even accommodate their officials, let alone the players.

"We are spending not less than Taka 40 lakh to run cricket for one calendar year. But this is the reward of our wholehearted effort," said the BU official.

But in a strange world reward for non-cricketing clubs like Dhaka Club and Uttara Club are enormous. Of course, the two Clubs who primarily cater to the elite of the society, play Holiday cricket. To the shock of the league cricket officials and players, Dhaka Club and Uttara Club have been allotted three hundred sets of tickets each for the International Gallery, which the BCB had announced would be restricted to foreigners only. If the six hundred ticket-holders of Dhaka Club and Uttara Club are all foreigners, we rest our case. If they are Bangladeshis, which is more the case according to our survey, then BCB has flouted the responsibility with which the nation entrusted them. Perhaps the State Minister for Sports and Culture, Obaidul Quader, would like to have a word with the BCB regarding such deplorable partisan behaviour. The State Minister should do so on behalf of the not-so-privileged citizens.

Source :: The Bangladesh Daily Star (https://www.dailystarnews.com)